Class cards Flashcards
Earliest forms of music?
Church music. Anything passed down in the oral tradition
Eventually it was written down, giving us that history
That happened in the middle ages
History of Rock N Roll Origins (3)
1953 was the start
Pop music (Broadway/tin pan alley)
History of Rock N Roll Characteristics from Origins
Softness
Sung by a trained Singer
Back up (a chorus or orchestra)
Smooth lyrical ballads
Example Nat King Cole (Mona Lisa)
History of Rock N Roll Origin from Country/Western Characteristics
More prominent rhythms (steel guitar and vocal yodal)
Electric pedal, guitar, bass, acoustic
Uncomplicated meter and harmony
Few chords
Simple phrases/structure
No drums–until later
Examples Roy Rogers, Dale Evans
Example, Hank Williams, “Your Cheatin Heart”
Eddy Arnold, “Bouquet of Roses”
History of Rock N Roll Origin from Rhythm and Blues
Biggest influence
Hard driving rhythm
Acoustic and electric guitar, piano drums, saxophone
Harmonies and few chords
Ex: Bessie Smith, “Lost Your Head Blues”
Ex: Memphis Slim, “All By Myself”
Ex: Joe Turner, “Roll’Em Pete”
12 Bar Blues
Made up the largest percentage of blues songs
Each verse is 12 bars and doesn’t veer from the pattern
Start of Rock N Roll Movie
Movie Blackboard Jungle’s soundtrack
With songs like “Rock Around the Clock” which has the 12 bar blues format
This movie was very popular, thus introing public to the new style
Who popularized Rock N Roll?
Elvis Presley
He was young and cool and thus had universal appeal
Honorable mention to Chuck Berry who intro’d the electric guitar
Beach Boys influence in Rock N Roll?
“Surfin Safari”, which uses the 12 bar blues
“Surfin USA” has 3 chords
Brought Rock N Roll to surfing groups
Beatles influence in Rock N Roll?
Did soft rock, R & B, Rock N Roll
Irregular phrase structure
Less usual timbre
More complex texture
Novel meter/rhythm
Sophisticated harmonies
Not new tricks to Classics and Broadway, but brought more complexity to Rock N Roll
Rock N Roll pre-60s
Silly words
Simple melodies
Short songs
Loud and fast
Enjoyable music
Lots of Reps
3-Chord harmonies
but after 60s there were no limits
Beatles leading the change
Folk Rock
Blend of Flock and Rock N Roll
The Byrds and Mr. Tamourine Man are two influential bands
Blend of folk and traditional guitars can be heard
Music
interaction of time and pitch where time is rhythm and pitch is melody/harmony/both
Rhythm
Accents that appear in a particular pattern
Meter–the beat
Melody
Musically satisfying notes
A succession of tones grasped by the mind as a significant pattern
Its horizontal or on the x axis
Metric
steady rhythm
Timbre
Or tone quality
Pronounced tamber
Can be by type (vibrating string, skin stretched over a barrel, air column with a cylinder) or attack characteristic (scraping of bow on strings, struck by a mallet, lips on a mouthpiece)
Tempo
Speed
Dynamics
Loudness or softness
Aural memory
Listen and remember
Duple rhythm
rhythm in 2/4 or every other word/beat stressed
Hand gesture is up and down
Also beats
Part of simple meter
Triple meter
Stress of beat/word is on the third
triangular hand gesture
Quarter note
Solid line and one ball sticking out to left
Whole note
Circle with hole in middle
Half note
Single stem, with hollow ball
Eighth note
one flag on stem and solid ball
Sixteenth note
Two flags on stem and solid ball
Whole rest
Solid square hanging on second top line
Half rest
Solid square sticking up on third line
Quarter rest
Squiggly line
Eighth rest
Diagonal line with ball on top left
Sixteenth rest
Diagonal line with two balls on top left
Quadruple meter
4/4, with 4 quarter notes as basis
Type of simple meter
Compound meter
Meter is divided into 3 parts
6/8 or 12/8
Simple meter
Meter is divided into two parts
Downbeat
Strong beat in the meter
Upbeat
Weaker beat in the meter
Additive meter
When the subdivisions of the beat are in a combination of 2 or 3
Combination of duple or triple meter
Like 5/4 time
Syncopation
Unexpected accent or series of accents upsets the regular pulse or momentum of music
Non-metric
No discernable rhythm
Poly-rhythm
Combinations of different types of rhythm
Like a duple and compound in the same piece
Largo
Type of tempo
Very slow
Adagio
Type of tempo
Slow
Andante
Type of tempo
moderately slow
Moderato
Type of tempo
medium
Allegro
Type of tempo
very fast
Presto
Type of tempo
very, very fast
Vivace
Type of tempo
the fastest
Accellerando
To speed up the tempo
Ritardando
To slow down the tempo
Dynamics
Volume of the piece
P=piano or soft
F=forte or loud
Pianissimo
pp very soft
Mezzo piano
mp medium soft
Mezzo forte
mf medium loud
Fortissimo
ff very loud
Fortississim
fff even louder
Crescendo
Growing louder
Decrescendo or Diminuendo
Growing softer
Contour
How the melody can rise or fall
Shape
How the melody can be round or jagged
Range
How the melody can have a wide, medium or narrow range of sound
Type of ovement
Melody’s can be conjunct or disjunct
Pitch
Highness or lowness of tone measured by its frequency
Key note or Tonic
Key of the song
Key note or Tonic
Key of the song
Builder for chords
Scale
Arrangement of pitches that ascends and descends
Majors and Minors
Distance between keys
Is 1 half steps
2 halfs make a whole
Chromatic scale
Scale using both white and black keys on the piano
C Major
whole, whole, half, whole, whole whole, half
Minor scale arrangement
Whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole
Change of mode
change from major to minor or minor to major but in the same tone or with the same key
Change of mode
change from major to minor or minor to major but in the same tone or with the same key
Conjunct
notes are connected, not much distance, so feels smooth
Disjunt
Notes are separated giving a disjointed feel
Intervals
Relationship between pitches
Measured by steps between intervals
An octave is an interval and has 8 scale tones
Octave
8 notes above initial pitch
Chord
Intervals played together
Harmony
Notes playing at the same time
On the y axis
Antecedent phrase
An unfinished or incomplete melody and harmonic progression
Leaves us hanging
Harmonic progression
Certain progression of chords
Support melody
Set up cadences
They are often in the same order
Cadence
End point of a phrase
You expect one at the end of every phrase
Half cadence
A special type of cadence which follows an antecedent phrase–most commonly it is a dominant chord
Authentic cadence
Ends on the tonic and ends a consequent phrase
Consequent phrase
a complete or finished melody and harmonic progression
Leave us satisfied
Functional harmony
Tonic to dominant to tonic again-doesn’t have to be immediate but at beginning and end of song
Basically all music written from 18-20th century uses this arrangement
Modulation
The change from moving from one key to another
Texture
Blend of sounds in a composition
Its another Y variable on a graph
Monophonic
Type of texture
Single sound or voice–voice can be any melodic line not just the vocal but a noise
Lots of early music, like monk chants, fall into this bucket
Polyphonic
Type of texture
More than one voice
Sounds all are compatible with each other
Came later in the middle ages
Homophonic
Type of texture
One voice supported by other sounds or chords
Began in renaissance but really got going in Baroque
Imitative polyphony
Most common type early on
2 different “voices” but the second will imitate the first and interplay with the same arcs
A bit like a round
Non-imitative polyphony
2 independent melodies that however are compatible with each other
4 properties of music
Pitch (melodies)
Duration (length, combinations of lengths)
Volume (intensity, loudness, softness)
Timber (unique acoustic properties of an instrument)
Orchestra sounds–Strings
Violin–Soprano
Viola–Alto
Cello–Tenor/Baritone–can be in the Bass
Double-bass–Bass and also the lowest member of string family
Harp–covers everything
Orchestra sounds–Woodwinds
Flute–Soprano
Piccolo–Soprano (and higher than)
Clarinet–different sounds depending on type
Saxophone–hybrid of woodwind and brass
Oboe–highest double reed instrument (reeds have a pinched sound)
English horn–Alto double reed (named derived for the french word for angle due to the mouthpiece)
Bassoon and Contrabassoon
Orchestra sounds–Brass
Trumpet–highest and brightest
Trombone–only instrument that uses a slide, usually plays low and is one of the most powerful instruments
French horn–aka horn–tenor
Tuba–lowest member
Orchestra sounds–Percussion
Struck instruments (usually 3 or 4 within a piece)
Timpani–drum
Snare drum
Bass drum–adds emphasis
Symbols
Piano
Triangle
Castanets
clip clopping sound
Sequence
melodic pattern often repeated but can be in different pitches
Often come in threes
Ostinato
repeating pattern of notes or chords
Unifies
and provides harmonic structure
Greek influence in the beginning
Lots of mythology with music–Hermes inventing the lyre which he gave to Apollo for his magic cows
lots of terminology: muse, chorus, hymn, lyrical, prose
Doctrine of Ethos
music’s influence on us
imitation of life
inseparable from language
can strengthen feelings
molds character
plato and aristotal thought music and gymnastics could produce a well balanced person
greek plays were always set to music
staff notation
invented by a monk named guido
the music notation we use today
before that they had numatic notation
both developed for the church
before that things were passed orally
up to the baroque period, we don’t really know how it was supposed to sound–its part guess work
Early music
medieval, renaissance, baroque
everything up to Bach or about 1750
because there was no interest in early music–lots of info was lost
Renaissance music time
1500
Baroque music time
1600–1750
Classical music time
1750-1800
Romantic music time
1850-1900
20th century music time
1950 on
Middle ages music–2 sections
Dark ages–476 CE to 10th century
we don’t know much about the music then
10th to 14th–gothic period or high middle ages
church’s early music philosophy
must be for the glorification of god
can’t have your ego
must bow to church
must teach about church–which instrumental cannot do so that was unexpectable
nothing to encourage dancing because you can’t move your body
Plainchant
monophonic–one line, a melody with no other accompaniment
Thousands/tens of thousands of these preserved
No secular or instrumental music survived
A cappella
Means ‘in chapel’
AKA voice only because instruments weren’t allowed in church
Syllabic
One note per syllable
Neumatic
2-4 notes per syllable
Melismatic
Many notes per syllable
Dies Irae
using plainchant combined with other music
Gothic period
Start of banking system
Start of education system
Musicians start taking credit for their music
Plainchant evolving
Writing a new line of music in parallel with plainchant–so you have two sounds layered in synchrony
AKA parallel organum which led to free organum
Which led to florid or melismatic organum
Florid or melismatic organum
plainchant in which a new voice is added above the original voice, moving faster than the original plainchant line
Notre Dame School
Continuing evolution of music happened here
Layering a more complicated lyrics part with original plainchant played by musicians
Became known as Old Art
Early secular music
Performed by minstrels and jugglers
Starting in 9th century
Performed long epic poems
Troubadours
Unlike minstrels and jugglers who sang mainly in Latin, these singers sang the poems in their own languages so they were understood
Hocket
Where the flow of a melody is interrupted
Guillaume de Mchaut
Ordained priest
Most known church composer of his time
But also was a famous secular composer
And well known poet
Ranked with Chaucer
Key instruments of middle ages
Mainly wood instruments–handmade, all unique, difficult to play and tune
Trumpet (cornetto)
Shawm (obo)
Sackbut (trombone)
14th Century
Lots of unrest in church like the Great Schism (39 years, with 2 popes), sex scandals, corruption, levying taxes on followers
Hundreds Years War was happening
The black plague was sweeping through–lack of serfs to work, which meant landholders were vying workers with higher pay, which led to attempts to limit serf movement, for which led to the peasants revolt
All in all, not the same blind following of the church as there had been up to this point and kings got more power
16th Century
The reformation!
Power of the church is broken
Martin Luther–Lutheranism
Henry the 8th–Anglican
John Calvin–Calvinist
Dante, Chaucer, poke fun at church
Its time to enjoy life
Greek humanist ideals (renaissance)
Pursue enjoyment of life for its own sake–greek and roman revival
Everyone goes crazy for all things Greek like art, texts, music
15th century music
Scholars wonder why their own music isn’t as moving as the Greeks was
They start to wonder if they can recreate it, but have no models
Pythagoras’ musical theories help them
Pythagoras’ musical theories
Discovers the overtone series (harmonic series)
Why some musical notes sound better together
Renaissance beginnings–the overtone series
Premise that all sounds are produced by vibrating bodies producing sound waves
Wave patterns
Irregular patterns=noise
Regular pattern=musical tone
Any fundamental tone is made up of a bunch of overlapping overtones to make up a note
Polyphony
Layering music on top of each other
Early renaissance sound
Start caring about dissonance–how we are layering different sounds and how they match up
Having sounds moving towards or away from each other
Emphasis on understanding sung words so not having them obscured by the music itself
14th and 15th centuries
Hererophony
One instrument leads while another backs it up with embellishments
Often seen in Jazz music
Counterpoint/Contrapuntal
Polyphony/polyphonic
point against point (note against note)
Imitative polyphony
Imitative–individual voices overlapping each other
Like a round
Strict (round) (counterpoint - because it goes full circle it goes on forever
Non-strict - more common, stays in one style but only within the specific cord
Most Renaissance composer
Josquin des Prez
3 types of mass
cantus firmus mass (tenor - plainchant)
paraphrase mass (music goes through a transportation, giving plainchant with rhythm)
imitation mass (uses popular song tunes as jumping off point)
Musica Reservata
matching emotions with musical text
text intelligibility–emotions over words
Madrigal
A type of song known for the renaissance period
common theme is unrequited love
